Little Black Submarines
by mirdaishan
Summary: Based on Elisabeth Harnois's song Little Black Submarines. Greg sees a video of Morgan singing and finds out she never wants to sing again. He doesn't understand why as her voice is amazing. When he tries to talk to her about it, she refuses to tell him why she won't sing anymore. Can he still get through to her and get her to start singing again?


**First of all: I loved last week's CSI episode (13x21)! I really want to write a fanfic about it as well, but since I don't know what exactly yet, I decided to first add this.  
****This story is based on the actual Little Black Submarines song, which Elisabeth Harnois recorded a while ago. If you've never heard it, please look it up as I think it's a-ma-zing! I actually hope we'll get to hear Morgan sing on CSI some day, but until then... enjoy this story! :)  
Oh, and I know Little Black Submarines is a recent song and that it didn't exist yet when Morgan was in high school, but that's just something I'd like to call creative writing! ;)**

"Sheriff, I've got…"

Greg stopped mid-sentence when he saw Ecklie was watching a video on his computer. The fact that the sheriff was watching a video wasn't what had stopped him, but the video itself. It was a video of Morgan… singing.

Surprised, Greg looked at the screen. He didn't get much time to listen to Morgan's singing voice because Ecklie stopped the video as soon as he noticed Greg, but the short clip had been enough to give Greg goose bumps.

"That was amazing!" he said, his eyes wide open with excitement. "I didn't know she could sing like that!"

"No, not many people do," Ecklie confessed with a sigh. "She doesn't like people hearing her sing… anymore…"

"What? Why not?" He honestly didn't understand. Morgan had an amazing voice, why wouldn't she want people to hear her sing?

"I wish I knew… She used to sing a lot when she was younger, but she suddenly stopped," Ecklie told him. "At first I thought it was just a phase and that she'd start singing again when she got older, but she never did. I think this video is of the last time she ever sang in public…"

He started the video again and let Greg watch it till the end.

"Wow," was all Greg could say when the screen went black. Ecklie gave him a little smile. "I know…"

"Have you ever tried talking to her about why she doesn't want to sing anymore?" Greg then asked him. Ecklie nodded. "Of course, but she doesn't want to tell me. She doesn't even want to talk about it!"

"Do you think… I could try talking to her about it?" Greg carefully asked him. After a moment of silence, Ecklie nodded. "Sure, why not? Although I doubt you'll get an answer!"

"At least I will have tried then," Greg decided. He started to leave Ecklie's office, but then remembered Russell had sent him to the sheriff to hand him some paperwork. After Ecklie had signed the papers, Greg rushed back to Russell's office, gave him the papers and then started looking for Morgan. He found her in the CSI garage, lying on a skateboard underneath a car to look for evidence. Nick was with her, but he was checking the backseat for prints.

"Do you always let the lady crawl underneath the car?" Greg jokingly asked him. He smiled at Morgan, who had rolled out from underneath the car as soon as she had recognized his voice.

"I didn't know there was a lady here," Nick joked back. Morgan made a face at him. "Ha, ha…"

The two men both smiled while Morgan got up from the skateboard. She looked at Greg. "Are you here to save me?"

"Actually I came here to talk to you for a moment," he confessed.

"Oh, sure!" She sat back down on the skateboard and waited for him to start talking. With a questioning look on his face Greg looked at Nick.

"Right, I'll go and get some coffee," Nick decided, understanding Greg didn't want him there when he talked to Morgan. Greg waited till he had really left the CSI garage before he sat down on the floor next to Morgan. With any introduction he asked her: "How come you don't sing anymore?"

Immediately, Morgan lay back down on the skateboard and rolled back under the car. Greg frowned. He had expected her not to answer, but this reaction was heavier than he had expected.

"You can talk to me, I won't tell anyone!" he said, feeling kinda stupid talking to a pair of shoes.

"There's nothing to tell!" Morgan's voice came from underneath the car.

"Why not? You have an amazing voice!"

Morgan rolled back out from underneath the car and looked at him. "How do you know about my singing anyway?"

"Your Dad was watching a video of you singing when I walked into his office," he confessed. He quickly stopped her from rolling back under the car. "Come on, Morgan, I just want to know why! You sounded amazing!"

"I don't want to talk about it," she curtly told him before she disappeared under the car again. Greg rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I kinda got that already… But why don't you want to talk about it? And why don't you want to sing anymore? Morgan? Morgan!"

That she wasn't answering any of his questions suddenly drove him so crazy he grabbed her ankles and pulled her out from underneath the car.

"Hey!" she protested. She tried to get back under the car, but he was too strong for her and she had to give up her fight. To his surprise he noticed her arms had ended up around him during their short struggle and that she was close enough to kiss. Before he could even try to kiss her, the clearing of a throat ruined their moment.

"Sorry, I'll go and get another cup of coffee," Nick said, clearly feeling very uncomfortable. Greg felt Morgan's arm sliding off of him. She quickly shook her head at Nick. "No, it's alright, we were just… eh…"

Greg was happy she didn't finish her sentence as he couldn't think of anything that couldn't make this moment even worse.

"I'll be right back," she told Nick, getting up from the skateboard. With her head she gestured Greg to follow her. He immediately did as she asked, already knowing where she was going as soon as she left the CSI garage. A few weeks ago, they had found a little secluded spot not too far from the lab and every now and then, they went there to talk during their breaks together. It was perfect as no one else knew about the place and they could talk without being interrupted.

"Okay, I'll tell you," Morgan said with a sigh after they had both sat down. "But please don't tell anyone else, okay?"

"I promise," Greg instantly said. Morgan nodded a little, as if she hadn't expected him to say anything but 'I promise'. She then took a deep breath and started talking: "I used to sing a lot when I was younger. And when I say 'a lot', I mean _a lot_! I knew it drove my Mom crazy sometimes, but I just loved it so much that I couldn't stop! I even used to dream about becoming a famous singer… until I discovered science was more fun of course…"

She answered his smile before she continued: "When I was in high school, I was still singing a lot and one of my classmates suggested I'd audition for our School Talent Search. Since everyone had always told me I had such an amazing voice I immediately signed up and started practicing the song I would sing during the audition…"

She fell silent for a moment, thinking back to that day that she'd never forget. Greg calmly waited until she was ready to continue her story.

"When I woke up the day of the audition…" she finally said, but then she fell silent again. Greg saw tears appearing in her eyes. He hesitated, should he take her hand or not? Before he could decide, she started talking again: "I felt horrible… I had a headache, my nose was all stuffed up and I had a sore throat. My Mom wanted to take me to a doctor, but I convinced her I was feeling okay enough to sing. I took some aspirins against my headache, put a gazillion tissues in my pockets and drank about six mugs of tea with honey against my sore throat. I actually thought it had helped, because when it was my turn to sing, I was feeling a lot better already. For a moment that was…"

She sighed deeply before continuing: "I sang my song, Little Black Submarines, which was one of my favorite songs back then. I thought I actually did okay in spite of my cold and everything… Until the jury started talking…"

A tear slowly ran down her face, but she didn't bother to wipe it away.

"They said I was horrible…" she said, her voice barely reaching a whispering level. "That I sounded like a cat in a blender, that I made their ears hurt and that… I should never sing again…"

The tears started running down her face faster and faster.

"And then they put the video up on the school's website!" She was crying out loud now and Greg didn't hesitate to put his arms around her this time. When she had finally calmed down again, she said, still sobbing: "I never sang again after that and I never will… I watched that video, Greg, I sounded horrible!"

Greg frowned. "How is that possible? I saw that video of you singing in your Dad's office, you sounded amazing!"

Because she started crying again, he quickly stopped talking and just held her in his arms until she calmed down. Carefully he wiped away her tears and smiled at her. "It's okay, it doesn't matter anyway. All that matters is that you chose science and that you ended up being the most amazing CSI I know!"

"You're only saying that because there's no one else around…" she poutingly said. In spite of everything, Greg smiled and to his relief, Morgan smiled as well.

"Thanks, Greg," she smiled at him. "And you're actually a pretty amazing CSI yourself as well…"

Smiling, he helped her get up. They slowly started walking back to CSI, both without saying anything. At the door, they gave each other a polite smile before going their separate ways. Greg waited until Morgan couldn't see him anymore, then he rushed to Ecklie's office.

"Sorry to bother you, Sir, but I have to ask you something," he said out of breath. "Which high school did Morgan go to?"

* * *

At the end of shift Morgan started to make her way to the locker room when Greg suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her along to their office.

"What…" she started, but he just pushed her down on his chair and pointed to the screen of his computer. "First, the video from your school's website…"

Before she could say anything, he pressed 'play' and she was forced to watch the clip she had tried to forget about so badly.

"_Hi, my name is Morgan Ecklie and I'm going to sing Little Black Submarines,"_ she heard herself say. When the music started, she turned away from the screen, actually thinking about covering her ears when she started to sing. To her relief, Greg stopped the video after only a few seconds.

"And now, the video your Dad was watching," he said. He pressed 'play' again.

"_Hi, my name is Morgan Ecklie and I'm going to sing Little Black Submarines."_ She turned away from the screen again, but this time, she almost immediately turned back. Surprised, she looked at the screen. Was this really the same video? She suddenly sounded amazing!

"I did a little research," Greg confessed. "I just couldn't believe that you sounded that bad during your audition after having seen your Dad's video. So, I went to the AV lab and analyzed the video from your school's website. And guess what… You're not the girl singing!"

Not understanding, she looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I compared the voices," Greg explained. "The introduction, 'Hi, my name is and I'm singing', that is you. But the singing voice is someone else! Look, I'll play it without the music, just watch the sound waves!"

Slowly Morgan started to understand what had happened. Her own singing voice had been muted and someone else's voice, someone else's _horrible_ voice, had been used to accompany the video.

"Since your Dad didn't hear the jury comments, he didn't know about any of this," Greg continued. "Plus the fact that you were trying to take your stepdad's last name at the time and barely told your Dad anything at all… He never knew about any of this or he would have shown you his original video ages ago already. I know I promised I wouldn't tell anyone else, but I figured I could make an exception… I hope that's okay…"

She didn't immediately respond, still processing everything in her mind. Her singing voice wasn't horrible at all… Someone had altered her audition video… And Greg had managed to figure it all out… Suddenly she threw her arms around him and kissed him full on his lips. He didn't get time to respond as for the second time that day, they were interrupted by the clearing of a throat.

"Is there something you'd like to tell us?" Russell slowly asked them. Morgan turned around and saw the rest of the team standing behind him. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around Greg a little tighter, realizing they wouldn't be able to keep their relationship a secret any longer.

"No, not really," she grinned before turning back to Greg and kissing him again. She then let him go and looked at the team. "But there is some place I'd like to take you to actually…"

* * *

"_Oh, is blind  
__It's blind  
__Hmm…"_

For a moment it was completely silent in the karaoke bar, then a deafening applause started. With a proud blush on her cheeks Morgan left the stage and joined her colleagues again.

"That was amazing!" Finn called out. "Why didn't you ever tell us you can sing like that?"

"Oh, I guess I… forgot…" Morgan said, quickly winking at Greg. Smiling, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, a kiss full of love, but also filled with pride.

"You did amazing," he whispered in her ear. "I'm so proud of you!"

"It's all thanks to you," she whispered back. "Without you I'd still be thinking I sound like a cat in a blender when I sing…"

Grinning, he kissed her again.

"The school has promised to remove the video from their website," he then told her. "They said it would probably be too late to find out who altered it, but I was welcome to try and find out…"

"That's okay, I think I already know who's behind all of this," she admitted. "There was this girl in one of my classes who thought she could sing, but actually sounded horrible. She hated me at the time and I suddenly remembered her brother was part of the jury. He was the one who told me I should never sing again…"

"Well, if you like we can arrest them now or something like that…" Greg suggested with a playful smile. She grinned. "That does sound tempting…"

She then shook her head. "No, I don't wanna do that. I rather start singing a lot again to get back at her!" she smiled before wrapping her arms around him once more.

"So, is this something you forgot to tell us as well?" Nick asked them, his eyebrows raised up high.

"No, this is something we didn't you tell on purpose," Greg grinningly told him.

"And actually we still don't wanna tell you," Morgan added with a cheerful smile. "Anyone mind if I sing another song?"


End file.
